


bewitching

by hydroxy



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Soul Splitting, because why wouldn't they be, donghyuck and renjun are witches, sorry for the literal blasphemy but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27659210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hydroxy/pseuds/hydroxy
Summary: “Am I—” Jeno gulps before whispering, “are you saying I’m immortal now?”“Technically, you doubled your lifespan,” Renjun explains. “But you don’t really get to actually experience that, since obviously,” he gestures at the figure smiling timidly at them, “half of your soul decided to personify itself with a human body.”
Relationships: Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 18
Kudos: 104
Collections: Challenge #3 — soulmates





	bewitching

**Author's Note:**

> my first fest! i hope u enjoy, i had a lot of fun writing this (◍＞◡＜◍) thank u so much to my beta [siri](https://twitter.com/nononomin_) for ur wonderful comments ♡
> 
>  **content warning** /expanding on the additional tag listed for religious figures: this is specific to Catholic/Christian Biblical figures, and the characters briefly talk about them being fictional. please feel free to click away if this content makes you uncomfortable.

“Are you _sure_ you want to do this?” 

_“Yes,_ Hyuck,” Jeno sighs exasperatedly, rolling his eyes before rubbing his hands together in anticipation and crouching down to get a closer look at the trinkets revolving in the air around the pentagram in front of him. “Imagine all the homework I’d be able to get done. Two of me means _doubled_ efficiency.”

“I don’t think you should be messing around with the dark arts out of selfish reasons, Jeno,” Renjun comments from the comfort of his loveseat in the corner of the bedroom, his book of enchantments levitating over his lap to meet him at eye level. “They’re called _dark_ arts for a reason.”

“How dark can they possibly get?” Jeno retorts, pouting and crossing his arms in front of him as Renjun and Donghyuck exchange tired glances. “You two get to play with magic all the time. Why can’t _I_ ever have a little bit of fun?”

“This is _your_ fault,” Renjun seethes at Donghyuck, who only blows a raspberry in response. “We aren’t supposed to _tell_ anyone about us—”

“We’re a dying species, babe. No one’s going to come after me for telling an innocent little human the truth. And _besides,_ I was getting so _bored_ pretending like I was a powerless—”

“What do you _mean_ no one’s going to come after you? Your brother’s hex lasted for six _months,_ you absolute _twat—”_

“Hey, what does _that_ mean?” Jeno suddenly gasps, his eyes alight as he points to raven’s feather that had settled in the center of the board.

“It’s finally ready,” Donghyuck announces, tauntingly wiggling his eyebrows at Renjun before making his way over to sling an arm over Jeno’s shoulder. “Come _on,_ Junnie. You know it won’t work if you don’t help me,” Donghyuck singsongs.

“That’s exactly why I’m staying over _here,_ far away from you two.”

“Even if I give you the last of my eye of newt?”

A pause, then a long sigh.

 _“Okay,”_ Renjun finally concedes. “Let’s do this.”

Jeno wakes up with a raging headache and a severe thirst for _something._ He can’t pinpoint what exactly his body wants, but he feels hollow, and ice-cold water suddenly sounds delectable.

“You fucking killed him, you idiot, he’s been lying in the same position for the past two days—”

“I didn’t _kill_ him, he’s _obviously_ still breathing, you can literally _see_ his chest moving—”

“And when exactly did you plan for him to wake up? How the fuck are you going to explain to his parents that you turned their son into a _vegetable—”_

 _“Please,”_ Jeno groans, weakly reaching out for nothing in particular, “shut the fuck up.”

 _“Jeno!”_ both of the boys scream, rushing over to his side as Jeno winces from the sudden attack on his eardrums. “I asked you to shut _up,_ not get even louder,” Jeno groans, rolling over to lay on his side as he clutches his head in pain. 

“Sorry,” Donghyuck whispers meekly, his hand coming up to brush Jeno’s hair out of his face. “How are you feeling?” Renjun asks.

“Severely dehydrated,” Jeno croaks, his head throbbing. “Could you—”

“Is he awake?”

Jeno isn’t able to register who the voice belongs to, eyes shut to protect him from the sunlight beaming through the window. “I’m _talking,_ aren’t I?” Jeno asks.

“Um, Jen,” Donghyuck clears his throat as Renjun nervously runs his hand against the nape of his neck, “you might want to be fully up for this.”

“What we’re saying is that it worked exactly how it should’ve worked,” Renjun repeats, much more slowly this time, eyes fixed on Jeno’s blank expression.

“We split off a little bit of your soul and mixed in some other fancy magic that you wouldn’t understand,” Donghyuck adds, enunciating his words with pained effort. “And then _this_ happened.”

 _Soulmates._

They never tell you about how excruciatingly painful it is to have your soul ripped in half, so strenuous on the body that apparently, some who’ve attempted the spell are still in comatose states from centuries past. Jeno is one of the luckier ones, Renjun had explained, before falling into another heated quarrel with Donghyuck after the younger began to boast of his magical mastery.

They also never tell you about what comes _after_ splitting your soul into two. This, as explained by Donghyuck, was likely due to the fact that successful splits were extremely rare, _human_ splits that ended well even rarer—cueing another exaggerated eye roll from Renjun—and that the practice was also terribly outdated. Apparently, after some lucky witch from centuries ago had managed to confer the vampiric gene for immortality to the genome of the wicked, soul splitting became even more unpopular than it already was. Donghyuck and Renjun had to scour through dozens of his mother’s ancient (and _very_ dusty) spellbooks to find a nearly faded, messily-scrawled transcription of the original incantation.

“Am I—” Jeno gulps before whispering, “are you saying I’m immortal now?”

 _“Well,”_ Donghyuck begins with hesitancy, “I wouldn’t necessarily say _that.”_

“Technically, you doubled your lifespan,” Renjun explains, throwing a quick glance at the boy watching the autumn leaves dance with the wind outside their window. “But you don’t really get to actually experience that, since obviously,” he gestures at the figure who’s now turned around and smiling timidly at them, “half of your soul decided to personify itself with a human body.”

Everything Jeno thought he knew about the circle of life was taught through his human biology courses. Humans _always_ started from babies, then turned into adults to make _more_ babies, and the cycle continued.

 _Jaemin,_ the boy had introduced himself, hadn’t needed to go through any of that. It was only logical that the derivation of Jeno’s soul would be his exact age and would choose to conjure a human form that mirrored what it thought an eighteen-year-old student would look like. 

Jaemin had also made several things clear. 

One: he _definitely_ didn’t want to take Jeno’s last name (“Jaemin _Lee?_ Don’t you think Jaemin _Na_ sounds better? Like Je _no_ but, _na?_ ” Donghyuck and Renjun had enthusiastically nodded in unison, to Jeno’s chagrin). 

Two: he was a _real,_ living, breathing boy with a mind and body of his own, now completely separate from the fragment of Jeno’s spirit that had thankfully stayed inside its original human vessel.

“Where’d you find the body, then?” Jeno had asked, intrigued yet slightly frightened. The thought of his soul finding a random (albeit attractive, he admits) corpse to take on made his stomach churn. 

“It made itself,” Jaemin replied nonchalantly, swinging an arm over Donghyuck’s shoulder with a satisfied grin. “Thanks to this _very_ talented little witch.”

Jeno had to spend the rest of the afternoon with his head ducked low, wearily avoiding Renjun’s fiery annoyance that manifested itself in the form of flinging random hard objects at Donghyuck’s head, Donghyuck obnoxiously gloating and skillfully maneuvering around his weapons with ease while Jaemin laughed and laughed, hands clutched onto his sides as his hiccups filled their living room.

“So you played God and created Eve from Adam?” Mark asks incredulously, eyes bugging out of his face towards Jaemin, who only stares right back at him with amusement.

“If you’re calling me a god, then _yes,”_ Donghyuck pauses for dramatic effect, “I absolutely did.” He grins brightly and shoots a kiss at Renjun on the other side of their living room, who flings an enchanted paper airplane at his ear.

“Does that mean you’re, you know,” Mark exchanges glances between Jeno and Jaemin, “fated to be together or something?”

“You know what I don’t really get about the Bible? It’s all _fanfiction,_ and you humans gobble it up like all that shit actually happened—”

“You’re just upset no one thinks you’re a god like _me,_ Injunnie—”

“Eve didn’t even _stay_ with Adam, Hyuck, you can’t go around supporting these lies just to boost your overinflated ego—”

_“Eve didn’t stay with Adam?”_

A pause. 

_“Fuck,”_ Renjun sighs, slapping a hand to his forehead before shooting an apologetic grimace at Mark.

“You’re an idiot,” Donghyuck scoffs at Renjun, standing up and dragging Mark away by the wrist to console him in the privacy of their kitchen. 

Renjun turns to find Jeno and Jaemin staring amusedly at him, grins badly stifled until all three break into raucous laughter and tears. Between their hiccups and waning giggles, Mark comes storming back into the living room to point accusingly at Renjun.

“Donghyuck told me Adam ran off with some guy named _Steve._ Is this true? And you _have_ to tell me the truth because I’m going to make sure you burn in Hell for all eternity if you don’t.”

“And how are you going to do that?” Renjun smirks, slouching against his beanbag. “Satan’s my fucking uncle.”

Mark closes his eyes, takes a breath, then sighs in defeat. “Fuck.”

“But _anyway,_ regarding your question earlier about their written destinies or whatever,” Renjun nods at Jeno and Jaemin, “I guess you can say that they’re eternally bonded.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jeno asks, blush creeping up his cheeks. He can feel Jaemin’s eyes boring into his profile and the room suddenly feels ten degrees hotter.

“It just means that you’re soulmates. He’s _technically_ like your version of Eve, but you don’t have to like, I don’t know, date, or anything. Humans really dramatize the whole ordeal more than they should.”

“Just expect to see each other _very_ often,” Donghyuck adds with a mischievous grin. “Soulmates tend to have a hard time separating. Maybe you’ll end up falling in _love,_ since apparently,” he winks at Jeno, “repeatedly seeing someone can create a more… _intimate_ atmosphere, if you know what I mean.”

“Just look at me and Hyuck,” Renjun mutters under his breath, but still loudly enough for Donghyuck to hear, “a hundred years of waiting for you all to come along and now I’m stuck with this loser for the rest of eternity.”

“You’re sleeping on the floor tonight.”

Jeno swears they do everything _but_ fall in love. In fact, he’s certain that he hates Jaemin at this point, three months into the boy’s _extremely_ irritating existence.

Unlike Jeno’s original (and selfish, he now understands) expectations, Jaemin had a mind of his own. Even with all of Jeno’s knowledge conveniently crammed into his brain (without all the long all-nighters Jeno had to personally suffer through), Jaemin _still_ refused to help him finish his mountain of assignments, preferring to lounge on Jeno’s bed and deplete his supply of chips and gummy worms. 

Jaemin, Jeno quickly realized, was everything that Jeno wasn’t: addicted to ridiculous amounts of sugar and caffeine (which often resulted in Jeno staying up past his bedtime just to keep Jaemin entertained until he eventually drifted off to sleep), extremely forgetful (despite Jeno’s constant reminders to _bundle up, it’ll be cold today_ or to _dry your hair after you shower or you’ll get sick)_ , and laughably oblivious to the obvious flirting attempts made by pitiful freshmen and overconfident seniors who’d track him down after class just to get shot down with a brilliant smile and a “Sorry, I don’t have a phone. But maybe you can text Jeno and he can relay your messages to me!”

“Are you _sure_ you don’t have a crush on him?” Renjun asks, eyebrows furrowed as he leans in to inspect Jeno’s steadily reddening face.

“I don’t have a crush on him!” Jeno quickly retorts, swatting Renjun’s face away as Donghyuck returns with their steaming cups of hot chocolate in hand.

“I told you,” Donghyuck hums, winking at Renjun before continuing, “Soulmates _always_ end up together.” He teasingly wiggles his eyebrows at Jeno, who fakes a gag.

 _“I don’t have a crush on him,”_ Jeno repeats through gritted teeth, shooting daggers at Donghyuck’s growing smirk. 

“You’re in denial,” Donghyuck challenges, cocking a brow as he sips his hot cocoa. 

“Am _not._ In fact, he’s the most annoying person I know, and I’m friends with _you.”_

_“Oh?”_ Donghyuck cracks an amused smirk as Renjun stifles a chuckle.

“I’m _not,”_ Jeno argues, huffing indignantly.

“Then explain why you let him eat from your super special _Donghyuck-can’t-touch-this-or-I’ll-kill-him_ snack drawer, even though I’ve been _so_ nice to you—”

“That’s because Doyoung only sends a restock twice a year, and I can't have you eating everything before I can even get a chance to—”

"Or how about the fact that you always carry around an extra jacket for him? Is this, perhaps, your way of showing you _care?"_

"I just hate it when he complains about how cold it is—”

 _"God,_ this is taking too long," Renjun huffs, shoving Donghyuck aside to rest his elbows on the table and stare deep into Jeno's soul. "Explain why," Renjun leans in closer, a subtle cock to his brow, "whenever anyone even spares a _glance_ at Jaemin, you whisk him away in the other direction?"

Jeno's heart stutters.

"And tell me why," he continues, "you're so adamant about him always being by your side? As if he'll run away to someone else the moment you let him go?"

Jeno's breath hitches.

"What if I told you," Renjun's voice now a low murmur, "I know someone who has a crush on Jaemin?"

Jeno sees red.

"What?” he sputters, “Who likes Jaemin?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Renjun tuts, leaning back with a satisfied smirk.

_"Tell me, Renjun."_

"I'd rather not."

_"Renjun."_

"Why should I?"

_"Because I like him!”_

“And there it is.”

When Jeno realizes what he's done and slams his hand against his mouth in horror, Renjun turns to wink Donghyuck, clicking his tongue as he holds out his palm. "Twenty bucks."

"You _bet_ on this?" Jeno shrieks incredulously, his voice muffled by the skin of his palm.

 _"Unfortunately,"_ Donghyuck sighs, reaching into his back pocket to grab his wallet. "I really thought I had that in the bag, you know."

"You can't always play nice, Hyuck," Renjun smirks, graciously accepting the twenty-dollar bill. "And Jeno,” he feigns sympathy, “I was talking about _you.”_

Upon the miraculous realization that Jeno was, in fact, rather infatuated with his current roommate-slash-soulmate, Jeno finds it hard to act normal around Jaemin, hands clammy as he stutters over monosyllabic words and flushes deep crimson with every blinding smile Jaemin throws his way. 

Even after three months of being squished into the same full-sized bed, often finding himself trapped under Jaemin’s firm limbs and having to lie still until the boy finally decided to wake up and smile at him with that stupidly adorable, dopey smile of his every morning; three months of not-actually-study-dates that often resulted in Jaemin giggling at him and endearingly patting his head every time he slammed his head into his textbook out of frustration; three months of successfully ignoring the feelings that had apparently been brewing inside of his weak heart since who knows when, Jeno was at a complete loss for what to do.

One, he couldn’t run away from his feelings even if he wanted to, since it was now a game for Renjun and Donghyuck to see how red they could turn his face with the mere mention of Jaemin’s name.

Two, he definitely couldn’t downright avoid Jaemin, since the boy had nowhere else to stay (and again, Renjun and Donghyuck would’ve forced Jaemin right back into Jeno’s arms—and bed—anyway).

Three, it seemed like Jaemin was picking up on his odd behavior, which only further complicated the situation because now, Jeno _definitely_ couldn’t avoid the boy, seeing that he wouldn’t stop pestering Jeno to figure out what was wrong with him.

“Why are you acting so weird?” Jaemin asks from the other side of the dining table, chin resting in his palm as he eyes Jeno suspiciously.

“I’m not acting weird,” Jeno retorts, quickly glancing up at Jaemin before returning his attention to his textbook, heat creeping up his ears.

“Yes you _are,”_ Jaemin replies, scrunching his nose with a slight pout. “You didn’t even remind me to bring a jacket to campus this morning.”

“W-well, that’s because you remembered to grab one today.”

“And you didn’t sleep in with me today, either.”

“We were going to be late for class!”

“But you always sleep in with me.”

“I—” Jeno struggles, “I just wanted to get to class early.”

“Why today of all days?”

“I-uh,” Jeno avoids eye contact, “I’m really passionate about quantum.”

“You fell asleep in lecture,” Jaemin deadpans. Jeno doesn’t have a response for that.

“And you’ve been avoiding eye contact with me, like, _all_ day,” Jaemin points out. “Just tell me what’s _wrong,_ Jen.”

Jeno’s heart skips a beat at the nickname.

“Nothings wrong,” Jeno mumbles, fixing his gaze on the mess of equations in front of him. 

“Something’s _definitely_ wrong,” Jaemin counters, leaning back against his chair and folding his arms.

“I’m _fine,”_ Jeno almost pleads, his cheeks burning.

“Just _tell me—”_

 _“Just admit you like each other already, you idiots!”_ Donghyuck’s voice rings loud and clear from behind his bedroom door, amplified by an acoustic charm to blare into their ears as if he were yelling into a megaphone. 

Jeno’s heart outright stops. He feels the heat from his cheeks spread up to the tips of his ears, down to the skin of his chest currently swathed in layers of cotton and wool, and he almost forgets to breathe, embarrassment flooding over him like waves crashing against jagged cliffs.

When Jeno finally summons the courage to look up, he finds himself looking at his mirror image, Jaemin’s cheeks adorably pink, constellations in his eyes, bottom lip between his teeth, and Jeno swoons.

“You like me?” Jaemin squeaks. 

“I-um, y-yeah,” Jeno stutters, suddenly forgetting how to use his words. He sees Jaemin’s lips begin to pull into a smile.

“For how long?”

“I-I don’t know, actually,” Jeno mumbles, “it kind of just—” “Happened?”

The apples of Jaemin’s cheeks are pulled high, his smile bright. 

“Me too,” Jaemin beams. “I like you too, Jeno.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank u so much for reading ♡ [twt](https://www.twitter.com/hyckfairy/) ♡ [cc](https://curiouscat.qa/hyckfairy)


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